Beyond Salvation
by imagination.will.suffice
Summary: Elena and Damon were once passionately in love agents. But like so many love stories, it ended in flames. They spend their next six and a half years apart, training for one thing, and only one thing – to exterminate each other.
1. Chapter 1

**I really _do_ hope this interests y'all :)  
And for the record, this is a Delena fanfic, but Damon and Elena won't see each other until Chapter 2... I promise a very... _interesting..._ reunion.**

* * *

Chapter 1

"Are you sure you're ready for this, Elena?" asked John, using Elena's first name, something she knew he very rarely did.

"I've been training for this the past six and a half years of my life," Elena deadpanned, fixing her gun tight to her belt that was wound around her waist, avoiding the question although she knew it didn't flow unnoticed to John Auld. Then she turned to make eye contact with him. "I think the better question is, are _you_ ready?" John narrowed his eyes at Elena.

"Care to explain your implications more eloquently, Gilbert?"

"I'm not an idiot, John," Elena sighed and John chuckled. "I know he's like a son to you."

John's face immediately froze, his lips morphing into a taut line, and Elena immediately felt bad for stripping the poor elderly man from the little moment of happiness he'd just had.

"I know, Elena. And he always will be. But not the side of him that you'll be facing today." John's face turned grim. "I believe the old side of him is long gone. And I - no, _we_ \- must be strong enough to deal with this side of him," he replied.

"But... there's something you're not telling me," Elena realized skeptically. "Something you're so hesitant and unsure about that you're not willing to tell me just yet."

John cracked the smallest smile. "Definitely a natural talent. You must take after your parents."

Elena returned a forlorn smile back at the mention of her beloved - and dead - parents before snapping back and squinting at him disbelievingly.

John sighed. "Okay, okay, fine. I surrender." Giving another deep sigh, he looked down. "Look, I know I said that I believed that the old side of him was long gone. However, I never said it was gone for good."

Elena's face fell in confusion for a split second, before turning into a mask of horror. Her eyes widened. "You think _I'll_ able to bring that side of him back," she stated for him, her eyes filled with an almost inhumane amount of lack of emotion.

"No, no, more definitely not!" John exclaimed immediately, but Elena just stared at him with an eyebrow raised. "No... it's just... A simple musing that I pushed away after a millisecond. We both know him, Lena," Elena smiled at his rare nickname for her, "he's stubborn as hell. Whatever thing in him that clicked more than six years ago, causing him to just drop everything - including his whole life - behind him and leave, it's going to take a lot to bring back."

"Well, good, I hope you don't think I will. Because he is a foul, evil, disgusting, _loathsome_ creature that needs to be rid and exterminated from this world as soon as possible," I declared, but all I got in return was a skeptical eyebrow raise.

~o~

Clad in a black tank top, black jeans and suede ankle boots with two guns attached to her belt and one at her ankle, tucked inconspicuously into her boot, Elena waved her boyfriend Ben out of the car and nodded to John.

"Be careful, Lena," he said hoarsely, looking the most concerned Elena had ever seen him in her twenty-seven years. "Please. For your parents and for me. For Logan... for Ben. Damon is lethal and reckless right now."

Elena groaned before surrendering to her emotions and leaning back into the car to give John a hug. "I promise, I will. And I won't do anything to him that is unnecessary. For you, not for my benefits. I don't give a fuck about him anymore."

"He gave Elena a final nod, and she swore she saw a tear in his eye, but maybe it was the light.

He then turned to Logan, Damon's supposed best friend. "You, too, be safe. I'm so proud of you for doing this."

Logan took a deep breath, and Elena squeezed his hand comfortingly. She knew it killed him that she could no longer empathize. But she was past that so very weak and vulnerable and disgusting time period. That girl was long gone.

"Gotta do what you gotta do," Logan replied.

Giving John one last tight smile, Elena waved her team over, and stalked into the building, Logan and Ben by her side and her strongest team following closely at her footsteps.

~o~

"Walker, Mace and Wilson, take East. LeGrand, Costa and Parker, take West," Elena instructed as her agents gave her nods and disappeared off to their routes.

"Be careful," she added quietly to their retreating backs, and they turned around to stare at her.

"You, too, Lena," Parker said softly on behalf of all of them. "You'll need it the most."

She gave them all nods before turning to Logan. "I'm gonna save you from having to deal with Salvatore, so you take South, and tell me if you see anything, alright?"

Logan nodded before dropping a quick kiss on Elena's cheek and a meaningful "Be safe" before ducking out of sight, quickly and stealthily just as skilled as he was talented, a gun already out of his belt and firmly gripped in his hand, whilst the other hand had a tight hold of the gun still fixed to his hip, ready to whip it out when he needed to

Elena took a deep breath before turning to Ben and giving him a quick nod. "Our turn."


	2. Chapter 2

**HI :) So, I finally did update, due to guilt. Apologies for the _incredibly_ late updates but... FINALS... God I condemn them all to hell... where I am right now. Lousy finals. So apologies but right now things are rocky and the updates will come a little slow. Forgive me. Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

 _Chapter 1_

Stepping over a fallen body of Raven, Elena sighed quietly. "Come on, Damon. Stop hiding. Don't be a pansy."

And then, a voice sounded in her earpiece.

"Gilbert, east. Target on the fifth floor, room thirty-nine. Asap," Elena heard Walker's voice before clicking out.

She looked gravely to Ben before darting off with him at my side.

"Walker, Mace, Wilson – take North. Green and I and I are taking East," Elena called into her piece as she and Ben flew down the stairs.

"Roger that," she heard them reply. "We took down forty-eight of them in the East. Apparently Damon's been keeping his tactics to himself."

"Always the selfish prick," Elena muttered to herself before skidding down the last two steps and streaking through the fifth floor to look for Room 39.

They encountered eight men through the corridor, but Elena didn't even bat an eye as Ben had them finished in a matter of minutes. She only had an eye for that last room at the end of the corridor – Room 39.

There was no one at the entrance… Was that all the backup they had?

She kicked the door lightly, and it swung open smoothly. Elena stepped in slowly, both guns raised in front of her.

"Come out, come out wherever you are, Salvatore," she tried to sound confident as she stepped in front of the large oak desk, her eyes meticulously scanning the area, but she inevitable shakiness in her voice betrayed her.

The eerie silence made her edgy.

"Damon," she snapped, but it came out sounding like a plea.

"Oh, I've been waiting more than six years for you, sweetheart," came a voice from the deepest shadows of the room, just in the darkest corner.

A voice that Elena had been longing to hear for years. That deep, sexy as hell but also dripping with honey voice that she'd missed for so long…

He stepped out from the shadows.

Dark denim skinny jeans. Broad-shouldered vintage leather jacket. Leather boots that kicked down a wooden panel that had helped him shield himself from her. She didn't dare to meet his eyes. But since when has she been one to resist the swirling temptation that was Damon Salvatore?

Her eyes looked up to meet his. Those motherfucking cobalt blue eyes. _Fuck_ _me_ , she thought.

And then everything she had done, all she had trained for, all the concrete, cement walls she had built around her heart in the past six years came crumbling and crashing down around her and her heart shattered yet again into a billion pieces.

Both guns were still pointed at him, and Elena had the upper hand since his gun was still at his side.

Her thumb shakily pulled the trigger down.

"Do it." His icy eyes bored straight into Elena's, almost stabbing right through. "I dare you."

His intent gaze caught the little tremor in her hand, sensing the uncertainty and hesitation in her body, and he took the chance to flash around the table and was in front of her in what seemed like less than a second, gun at her chest, forearm against her neck, constraining her against the wall.

Elena nearly gasped at Damon's sudden proximity,

He smirked at her, an evil glow clouding his blue eyes, causing them to darken and turn slightly grey. "Any last words, Gilbert?"

Elena gulped as tears began to form in her eyes. This was it. She had trained and trained physically for years for this very moment, yet she was so very, very pityingly weak and vulnerable emotionally. He had beaten her. All there was left to do at this point was muster up the last drops of her courage and strength.

Unshed tears in her eyes, her teeth tightly clenched together, her eyes burning ferociously, she managed to bite out, "Who are you, Damon Salvatore?"

Elena could tell something snapped in him then. Damon looked at her once more, and suddenly, she wasn't as frightened.

The gun dropped to Damon's side, and his arm grazed along Elena's neck before his lips crashed against hers.

~o~

Heaven, that was the only way to describe their reunion. Elena responded immediately, hands grabbing his neck, running through the short hairs at the back of his head, fingers brushing across his lean biceps, skimming across the defined abdomen muscles of his stomach, reveling in the feeling of his hand at the back of her head, clutching her face firmly to his, his other hand roaming around her body as if it had always belonged to him, tracing along her back, to the curve of the side of her breasts, across her flat abdomen, caressing her hip, squeezing her firm behind, grazing across her thigh before hitching it up around his hip and she gladly moved her other leg to mimic his desires.

Elena's heart almost exploded with pleasure as a toxic haze wrapped her mind up tightly, squeezing the rest of the world out and locking it tightly away for the moment as Damon pulled her closer until every line, every inch of her was pressed against him. She still remembered the bits and pieces he had left her heart in but it was just as difficult to pull away from him. He was like a drug made especially for her.

She trembled as his tongue moved roughly over her bottom lip, and before she could think it through, her mouth instinctively opened, granting him access.

She pressed her torso tighter against his, tightened her legs around his waist, as their tongues battled their never-ending war for them, just temporarily, as they poured every single feeling of frustration, lust, attraction and affection into the kiss.

"Elena?" Suddenly Ben's voice broke through Elena's temporary paradise and she snapped back to reality.

"Fuck," Elena muttered around Damon's lips before jumping down and pushing him away from her.

"Yes, Ben?" she answered her handheld two-way radio, flustered as she tried to ignore Damon's narrowed eyes directed straight at her and pull her down her tank top, which Damon had managed to push up all the way to her waist. She looked down to avoid his gaze, and noticed all three of their guns had fallen to the floor.

"Did you find Salvatore? Are you okay?"

"Yes… I, uh, yeah, um, right. I found Da– er, I mean, Salvatore. Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks."

"O…kay? Um… Do you need backup or something, Lena?" Ben asked, sounding confused and concerned at the same time.

"Actually, Ben, I think this might be good news. Call Ethan and John up, would you? I'll talk to you later," Elena said hesitantly.

"Will do," Ben replied.

"Uh, wait, Ben," she said quickly before he clicked off.

"Yeah?"

"You're okay, right?"

Elena could practically hear him smiling on the other end.

"I'm good. Minor bruises but otherwise fine."

"Good," Elena smiled. "I'll take a look at those for you when we get back to base."

"Bye." She heard a grin in his voice before he crackled off.

Elena took one deep breath before turning to face Damon. The hostility was almost gone, but he was still stubborn, rude, arrogant, mean, cocky, strong, sexy Damon.

"So. Ben, huh?" he asked, doing that sexy as hell eye thing and crossing his arms over his chest.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Elena snapped.

Damon raised an eyebrow. "Two agents calling each other by first names and being so concerned and affectionate with each other?" He smirked. "Sounds like you and me."

"Ben and I are much better, sweeter, kinder and downright _normal_ than you and I were," Elena retorted.

"Hm. Were. That explains why we just made out against a wall. And now you're telling me you're not actually single. Besides, where's the fun and danger in _sweet_?"

"That's the point, there isn't. And, for the record, I never told you anything. You simply assumed."

"And am I wrong?"

Elena shut up.

"…Well…" she finally said. "You can't say anything. Don't tell me you're single. Just how many women are waiting for you in bed right now?"

"Five?" Damon guessed. "Maybe seven. I'm not sure."

Elena sucked in a breath as the jealousy seeped its way into her heart. "You're repulsive."

He simply smirked in reply.

"By the way," Damon began. "It's probably a good idea _not_ to tell your little boyfriend, or John, or Ethan, or whoever you're close to now, that we… you know…" He made a little whistle in the place of saying "made out".

"I'm not an idiot, Damon," Elena said quickly. "It was probably a mistake, anyway. A spur of the moment thing – I didn't know what was happening, and I'm sorry."

Damon cocked his head at her in response, as if trying to figure her out.

"DAMON SALVATORE YOU LITTLE MOTHERFUCKER," bellowed a voice from the corridor, and Elena smiled at Logan's arrival.

"Logan," Damon grinned, and Elena's heart swelled at the sight of both of them being so cute and childish. "I must say, I missed you just a little bit."

"Oh, shut the fuck up," Logan replied before streaking into the room and giving Damon such a humungous bear hug that they nearly toppled to the ground with the amount of force in the hug.

"Alright, break it up, lovebirds," Elena rolled her eyes as they snickered and pulled apart.

"Damon has some stories to share with us, but not before John gets here. Any clue where he is?" Elena asked Logan.

"On his way. He doesn't want to take the elevator in case some of the Raven's troops are still here."

"You've probably demolished them all," Damon admitted. "They suck at physical training, and I refused to share any skills or tutoring with them."

"We know. That's why I called you a selfish prick before barging into this room," Elena told him, and Damon chuckled his deep, sexy chuckle that she hadn't heard in way too long.

"Wait, Logan, you didn't get hurt, did you?" Elena turned to her friend.

" _Please_ , Nika," Logan pretended to roll his eyes, "it's _me_ we're talking about."

Elena giggled.

"And you don't ask about me?" Damon feigned hurt.

" _You_? Got hurt?" Elena asked, shocked.

"What do you think?" Damon rolled his eyes.

"Shit, where?" Elena asked, going up to him, her eyes raking over his lean body, searching for any wounds. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Maybe because we were too busy trying to kill each other."

"Just tell me where so I can take a look, Salvatore," Elena said, frustrated.

"Just because she got herself a little medical degree," Damon retorted sarcastically before pushing back his leather jacket and lifting up his grey Henley, revealing his perfectly sculpted abs.

 _Shit, bad idea,_ Elena thought.

He showed her the side of his stomach.

"I swerved before it pierced my skin. But it still grazed across _and_ also went through my shirt and jacket. Wilson is paying for this. It's from the nineteen fucking seventies."

"You have about ten more 'nineteen fucking seventies' vintage leather jackets at home so shut up," Elena replied before turning back to the big gash at the side of his stomach. "Doesn't that hurt?" She kneeled down to be eye-to-eye with the wound.

Damon looked at her. "Six years of intensive training, I've taken a lot worse than that. I barely felt that, Gilbert."

Elena turned to look at Logan who was watching with sympathy.

"What did they _do_ to him?" she breathed quietly.


End file.
